Cranston mayor's limits on panhandling held by council panel

Thursday

Oct 13, 2016 at 9:35 PMOct 13, 2016 at 9:57 PM

Gregory Smith Journal Staff Writer

CRANSTON — Mayor Allan W. Fung has proposed a new law to address panhandling that would prohibit anyone from standing in the center median or lane divider of a roadway in order to give or take anything from the occupant of a motor vehicle.

Likewise, a person would be prohibited from stepping into a roadway for that purpose.

As long as a person stays on a sidewalk, in other words, there would be no violation. The proposed law also would specifically exempt an exchange in a city park or city parking lot.

The proposal is meant to substitute for an existing law that the city quit enforcing in response to a lawsuit by the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. The existing law sought to prohibit solicitation of donations — and distribution of literature — from people in a motor vehicle in a travel lane of a roadway.

The new proposal eliminates the specific references to money and literature.

Fung Thursday night personally asked the City Council Ordinance Committee to recommend his measure for passage, citing auto accident statistics and calling the proposal a public safety action.

But the committee voted along political party lines to hold it for study. Democrats John E. Lanni Jr., Steven A. Stycos, Mario Aceto and Paul H. Archetto voted to continue the matter and Republicans Donald Botts Jr. and Michael J. Farina voted not to continue. Several Democrats questioned whether panhandling had anything to do with the accidents the mayor cited and they called for an opinion from the council lawyer.

A month and a half ago, the council adopted a resolution asking the General Assembly to pass a law on panhandling that would withstand legal challenge and enable municipalities “to protect the health, safety and general welfare of their citizens.”

The new attempt to control panhandling is a reaction, at least in part, to the recent proliferation of panhandlers in Cranston. They have popped up at the commercial crossroads of the city, the intersection of New London Avenue and Sockanosset Cross Road, as well as other major intersections such as exit ramps from Route 10. That phenomenon has become an election-year bone of contention.

Michael J. Sepe, Democratic candidate for mayor who is trying to unseat the Republican Fung, and the ACLU have rebuked Fung for his initiative.

In a statement, Sepe deplored Fung for having “chosen the path of criminalization rather than compassion” in trying to limit panhandling.

Violation of the proposed law would be a civil offense, not a crime, punishable by a maximum fine of $85.

“Mayor Fung states that the purpose of the ordinance is to ‘prevent a tragedy from occurring [in a traffic accident],' " Sepe declared. "Yet, as I see it, a tragedy has already occurred when a person is reduced to begging for money in order to survive. We need to help that person.”

Sepe suggested that Cranston do what Albuquerque, New Mexico, does: Hire panhandlers as day laborers on public works projects.

The ACLU criticized the proposed law as constitutionally suspect because, the ACLU says, it “attempts to undermine the right of poor people to engage in panhandling.”

It “hardly solves the free speech problems that were inherent in the ordinance prompting our previous legal challenge,” Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island ACLU, said in a statement.

In a letter to the council, the ACLU cited what it says is a federal court decision from Boston that struck down a “similarly broad ban on free speech activities on roadway medians.”

Assuming the proposed law is enacted in Cranston and not selectively enforced against panhandlers, it also would interfere with other longstanding activity protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, such as the solicitation of donations by nonprofit groups and by firefighters in “Fill the Boot” campaigns and picketing by labor unions, the ACLU said.

Council Vice President Richard Santamaria said at the committee meeting that panhandlers and groups that want to solicit money or leaflet can do it at other, safe locations. Fung's proposal, he said, is a limitation, not a ban.

— gsmith@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7334

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